source: general/prog/svnserver.xml@ a206343

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<sect1 id="svnserver" xreflabel="Running a Subversion Server">
  <?dbhtml filename="svnserver.html"?>

  <sect1info>
  <othername>$LastChangedBy$</othername>
  <date>$Date$</date>
  </sect1info>

  <title>Running a Subversion Server</title>

  <sect2 role="package">
    <title>Running a Subversion Server</title>

    <para>This section will describe how to set up, administer and secure
    a <application>Subversion</application> server.</para>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Subversion Server Dependencies</bridgehead>

    <bridgehead renderas="sect4">Required</bridgehead>
    <para><xref linkend="subversion"/> and
    <xref linkend="openssh"/></para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="configuration">
    <title>Setting up a Subversion Server.</title>

    <para>The following instructions will install a
    <application>Subversion</application> server, which will be set up
    to use <application>OpenSSH</application> as the secure remote access
    method, with <command>svnserve</command> available for anonymous
    access.</para>

    <para>Configuration of the <application>Subversion</application> server
    consists of the following steps:</para>

    <sect3>
      <title>1. Setup Users, Groups, and Permissions</title>

      <para>You'll need to be user
      <systemitem class='username'>root</systemitem> for the initial portion of
      configuration. Create the <systemitem class="username">svn</systemitem>
      user and group with the following commands:</para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>groupadd -g 56 svn &amp;&amp;
useradd -c "SVN Owner" -d /home/svn -m -g svn -s /bin/false -u 56 svn</userinput></screen>

      <para>If you plan to have multiple repositories, you should have a
      group dedicated to each repository for ease of administration. Create
      the <systemitem class="groupname">svntest</systemitem> group for the test
      repository and add the <systemitem class="username">svn</systemitem>
      user to that group with the following commands:</para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>groupadd -g 57 svntest &amp;&amp;
usermod -G svntest -a svn</userinput></screen>

      <para>Additionally you should set <command>umask 002</command> while
      working with a repository so that all new files will be writable by
      owner and group. This is made mandatory by creating a wrapper script for
      <command>svn</command> and <command>svnserve</command>:</para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>mv /usr/bin/svn /usr/bin/svn.orig &amp;&amp;
mv /usr/bin/svnserve /usr/bin/svnserve.orig &amp;&amp;
cat &gt;&gt; /usr/bin/svn &lt;&lt; "EOF"
<literal>#!/bin/sh
umask 002
/usr/bin/svn.orig "$@"</literal>
EOF
cat &gt;&gt; /usr/bin/svnserve &lt;&lt; "EOF"
<literal>#!/bin/sh
umask 002
/usr/bin/svnserve.orig "$@"</literal>
EOF
chmod 0755 /usr/bin/svn{,serve}</userinput></screen>

      <note>
        <para>If you use <application>Apache</application> for working with
        the repository over HTTP, even for anonymous access, you should wrap
        <command>/usr/sbin/httpd</command> in a similar script.</para>
      </note>

    </sect3>

    <sect3>
      <title>2. Create a Subversion repository.</title>

      <para>
        There are several ways to set up a subversion repository. It is
        recommended to have a look at the <ulink
        url="http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.reposadmin.html">SVN
        Book</ulink> corresponding chapter. A basic repository can be set up
        with the instructions below.
      </para>

      <para>
        Create a new <application>Subversion</application> repository with
        the following commands (as the <systemitem class="username">root
        </systemitem> user):
      </para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>install -v -m 0755 -d /srv/svn &amp;&amp;
install -v -m 0755 -o svn -g svn -d /srv/svn/repositories &amp;&amp;
svnadmin create /srv/svn/repositories/svntest</userinput></screen>

      <para>Now that the repository is created, it should be populated with
      something useful. You'll need to have a predefined directory
      layout set up exactly as you want your repository to look. For
      example, here is a sample BLFS layout setup with a root of
      <filename>svntest/</filename>. You'll need to setup a directory
      tree similar to the following:</para>

<screen><literal>svntest/            # The name of the repository
   trunk/           # Contains the existing source tree
      BOOK/
      bootscripts/
      edguide/
      patches/
      scripts/
   branches/        # Needed for additional branches
   tags/            # Needed for tagging release points</literal></screen>

      <para>Once you've created your directory layout as shown above, you
      are ready to do the initial import:</para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>svn import -m "Initial import." \
    <replaceable>&lt;/path/to/source/tree&gt;</replaceable>      \
    file:///srv/svn/repositories/svntest</userinput></screen>

      <para>Now change owner and group information on the
      repository, and add an unprivileged user to the
      <systemitem class="groupname">svn</systemitem> and
      <systemitem class="groupname">svntest</systemitem> groups:</para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>chown -R svn:svntest /srv/svn/repositories/svntest    &amp;&amp;
chmod -R g+w         /srv/svn/repositories/svntest    &amp;&amp;
chmod g+s            /srv/svn/repositories/svntest/db &amp;&amp;
usermod -G svn,svntest -a <replaceable>&lt;username&gt;</replaceable></userinput></screen>

      <para><systemitem class="groupname">svntest</systemitem> is the group
      assigned to the svntest repository. As mentioned earlier, this eases
      administration of multiple repositories when using
      <application>OpenSSH</application> for authentication. Going forward,
      you'll need to add your unprivileged user, and any additional users that
      you wish to have write access to the repository, to the
      <systemitem class="groupname">svn</systemitem> and
      <systemitem class="groupname">svntest</systemitem> groups.</para>

      <para>In addition, you'll notice that the new repository's
      <filename>db</filename> directory is set-groupID. If the reasoning is
      not immediately obvious, when using any external authentication method
      (such as <command>ssh</command>), the sticky bit is set so that all
      new files will be owned by the user, but group of
      <systemitem class="groupname">svntest</systemitem>. Anyone in the
      <systemitem class="groupname">svntest</systemitem> group can create
      files, but still give the entire group write access to those
      files. This avoids locking out other users from the repository.</para>

      <para>Now, return to an unprivileged user account, and take a
      look at the new repository using <command>svnlook</command>:</para>

<screen><userinput>svnlook tree /srv/svn/repositories/svntest/</userinput></screen>

      <note>
        <para>You may need to log out and back in again to refresh your group
        memberships. '<command>su <replaceable>&lt;username&gt;</replaceable></command>'
        should work as well.</para>
      </note>

    </sect3>

    <sect3>
      <title>3. Configure the Server</title>

      <para>As mentioned previously, these instructions will configure the
      server to use only <command>ssh</command> for write access to the
      repository and to provide anonymous access using
      <command>svnserve</command>. There are several other ways to provide
      access to the repository. These additional configurations are best
      explained at <ulink url="http://svnbook.red-bean.com/"/>.</para>

      <para>Access configuration needs to be done for each repository.
      Create the <filename>svnserve.conf</filename> file for the svntest
      repository using the following commands:</para>

<screen role="root"><userinput>cp /srv/svn/repositories/svntest/conf/svnserve.conf \
   /srv/svn/repositories/svntest/conf/svnserve.conf.default &amp;&amp;

cat &gt; /srv/svn/repositories/svntest/conf/svnserve.conf &lt;&lt; "EOF"
<literal>[general]
anon-access = read
auth-access = write</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>

      <para>There is not a lot to the configuration file at all. You'll
      notice that only the general section is required. Take a look at the
      <filename>svnserve.conf.default</filename> file for information on using
      <command>svnserve</command>'s built-in authentication method.</para>

    </sect3>

    <sect3 id="svnserver-init">
      <title>4. Starting the Server</title>

      <para revision="sysv">To start the server at boot time, install the svn
      bootscript included in the <xref linkend="bootscripts"/> package.</para>

      <para revision="systemd">To start the server at boot time, install the
      <filename>svnserve.service</filename> unit from the 
      <xref linkend="systemd-units"/> package.</para>

      <indexterm zone="svnserver svnserver-init" revision="sysv">
        <primary sortas="f-svn">svn</primary>
      </indexterm>

<screen role="root" revision="sysv"><userinput>make install-svn</userinput></screen>

      <indexterm zone="svnserver svnserver-init" revision="systemd">
        <primary sortas="f-svnserve">svnserve</primary>
      </indexterm>

<screen role="root" revision="systemd"><userinput>make install-svnserve</userinput></screen>

      <para revision="systemd">Additionally, the instructions above require
      that svn server uses <command>umask 002</command> so that all new files
      will be writable by owner and group. This can be achieved by creating
      a systemd unit override file by running the following command:</para>

<screen role="root" revision="systemd"><userinput>mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/svnserve.service.d 
echo "UMask=0002" > /etc/systemd/system/svnserve.service.d/99-user.conf</userinput></screen>

      <para revision="systemd">Options which are passed to
      <command>svnserve</command> daemon can be changed in
      <filename>/etc/default/svnserve</filename>.</para>

    </sect3>

  </sect2>

</sect1>